Column: Creating economic opportunity in Wis.

WEDC welcomes feedback and input from our economic development partners and the citizens of Wisconsin on our efforts to strengthen Wisconsin’s economy through continuous improvements to our economic development model, our accountability and our operations.

WEDC has undertaken numerous accountability measures to comply with the recommendations made by the Legislative Audit Bureau as well internal and other external reviews of our operations. Some of those measures include:

» Hiring a vice president of credit and risk to improve our financial management;

» Reorganizing compliance functions and expanding staff to concentrate on compliance with state statutes and organization policies;

» Replacing an outdated financial management software system, inherited from the Department of Commerce, with sophisticated technology to meet WEDC’s, tracking, reporting and collections objectives; and

» Forming new board committees with public members to be more involved in awards, policies, contracts and audits.

We have made tremendous progress since our inception and will continue to evolve our operations to ensure that we are adapting to the very best practices of our industry. To this end, we have engaged the internationally recognized Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness to thoroughly review WEDC’s operations and procedures. With input from hundreds of stakeholders throughout the state, CREC will present their recommendations to our board in December.

With respect to WEDC’s performance for fiscal year 2015, it is important to note that WEDC surpassed its goals for the year. As noted by WEDC Chairman Dan Ariens, “WEDC’s FY15 business development strategies have resulted in 26,822 more opportunities for our neighbors to find work and $1.2 billion of capital helping our communities to thrive.”

The decrease in WEDC’s jobs impacted number from fiscal year 2014 is largely a result of the decline in demand for our Economic Development Tax Credits. Wisconsin companies are benefiting from an improved business climate that results in additional economic activity and job creation.

WEDC’s fiscal year 2015 investment totals also reflect the newly created Historic Tax Credit Program, which accounted for $78.1 million of WEDC’s $245 million investment tally for the year. This program has been heavily utilized in downtowns like Green Bay, but unlike most of WEDC’s financial assistance programs, it does not have a direct job creation metric associated with it.

This example demonstrates the shortcomings of judging WEDC’s performance by the single measure of job creation. Consider the $1.2 billion worth of capital investment required by WEDC’s fiscal year 2015 contracts. With an average leverage ratio of 9-to-1 for our investments, the resulting capital investment in the state will be much higher.

The benefits of WEDC’s work does not stop there. The ripple effects of our investments include indirect job creation including construction services, new vendor relationships and strengthened retail opportunities. The result is a healthy return to the state through income taxes that result from increased economic activity. We project that the state will draw an additional $78 million of income taxes from WEDC’s fiscal year 2015 contracts alone.

Moreover, it is very common for economic development projects to spark follow-up investments that are not captured in WEDC’s job creation metrics. For example, WEDC’s Certified Sites Program, which includes a plot at the Austin Straubel International Airport, has attracted an estimated $230 million in investments in these sites to date.

In the spirit of full transparency, we provide a full accounting of our investments and their outcomes in our Annual Report on Economic Development, available at InWisconsin.com/impact.

To date, WEDC has made 240 financial awards to companies in 18 counties that comprise the northeastern region of the state (The New North) totaling nearly $250 million. Our investments support projects whose total costs are more than $740 million and are expected to impact approximately 33,000 jobs. In addition, WEDC staff have provided operational assistance (non-monetary) to 437 companies and communities in the region, helping them maximize their success through knowledge sharing and no-fee consultation.

Tricia Braun is deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.